Cambridge South new station opening

[Tester]

All the vol au vents are mine....
Nom nom nom!

All the vol au vents are belong to you

 

[wolveseycastle]

Network Rail video with some recent drone video.

 

[Obar123]

Screens were the correct way around today and had the Cambridge South departures, obviously there weren't any! Looks to be nearly ready.

 

[kevin_roche]

Another video about the station by the Network News channel.

 

[mr_moo]

All the vol au vents are belong to you

Looking forward to them! (They better have vol-au-vents now! you've made me want some!)

 

[zwk500]

ORR Letter now Published for Cambridge South and associated infrastructure: https://www.orr.gov.uk/sites/defaul...dge-south-authorisation-letter-2026-06-18.pdf

This authorisation is for the placing in service of the following:
• A new station (Cambridge South) comprising four platforms, east and west station buildings and concourses
• A new AfA footbridge with lifts and second step only passenger footbridge
• Provision of 1000 cycle parking spaces
• Taxi rank and pick-up/drop off area
Excluded from this Stage 1 APIS application are the PRM accessible parking bays and staff parking bays on the east side of the station.

 

[D365]

Screen hardware will be mounted a certain way up due to cable routing etc. The rotation of the display will be a simple config change in the software, they don't need to go and physically turn them around.

And above all, the brackets are most likely to be asymmetric, which means the screens physically cannot be flipped. The rotation will be in software as you say.

 

[mr_moo]

ORR Letter now Published for Cambridge South and associated infrastructure: https://www.orr.gov.uk/sites/defaul...dge-south-authorisation-letter-2026-06-18.pdf

Great to see the APIS letter.

For anyone wanting to be nerdy, APIS is "Authorisation for Placing Into Service". It's essentially an authorisation from the ORR, the ultimate owners of the yes/no decision for opening, that the project complies with interoperability legislation (law).
If you want to read more, here you go: https://www.orr.gov.uk/monitoring-regulation/rail/investing-rail-network/interoperability

Note that their letter refers to two very key documents:
1) The SAR - This is a "Safety Assessment Report". This is produced by an independant safety assessment firm (as required by legislation - an "Assessment body" or AsBo), and states that the correct safety assessment processes have been followed. Note it doesn't state that the station is neccesarily safe, just that the safety process has been completed correctly.
2) The DoCoR - This is the "Declaration of Control of Risk". This is a document produced by someone quite senior in the project, and is the ultimate declaration by the project to the ORR that the safety processes have been followed, the assessments are complete, and that there are no significant issues outstanding. This is where the project declares "This is safe enough to be brought into use".

It then mentions that the "Eastern System Review Panel (SRP)" has supported it. This is essential too. This means that the project team has pressented to the SRP, which is a panel of very senior engineers from differing backgrounds. I have presented to SRPs and they are quite challenging, in a good way. They will spot whatever it is you haven't thought of. They will ask the difficult "what about..." questions, and will probe your declaratrions and risk assessments etc to ensure it's robust. Really useful, essential, and another robust step towads ensuring that what is being delivered is suitable.

 

[DeeperMadness]

I've never been to a station opening before; would it be better to go on the Sunday when the first trains arrive, or would Monday have more in the way of festivities? I just want to have a look at the new site and meet and natter with a few people.

 

[mr_moo]

Sunday early morning will likely have interested people, maybe youtubers etc for the first train.

The rest of sunday will have several people coming through just to have a look.

Monday there will be several people who were in some way involved in designing and/or building the station, including myself. We will be in the restricted area for the actual ceremony and food etc, but naturally once the official opening ceremony has finished and people wander off you'll be able to chat with some of them. I'll be happy to chat to anyone there who is interested.

 

[rmHawk765]

They're almost certainly (stupidly) running Windows and the displays are just essentially websites running on a Chromium-based browser. This is how the new Blackbox departure boards work at Norwich and Ipswich. They tend to run out of memory and crash, displaying the generic "Aw snap!" screen, and have an improperly-sized font after rebooting. Lovely pieces of kit.

As for flipping them, that's probably the one benefit of using Windows here.

I can understand using Chromium and a web app to some extent, the 700s use Firefox on some sort of custom Linux distro and a web app, and I've only ever seen a Firefox error page on one of those once. But using Windows...

 

[Mike395]

Was passing through the biomedical campus earlier in the week - didn’t have time to go up to the bridge but I got this photo of the new RA2 double arrows station sign!

 

[bspahh]

Was passing through the biomedical campus earlier in the week - didn’t have time to go up to the bridge but I got this photo of the new RA2 double arrows station sign!

So good they named it twice.

 

[wls1]

Anyone know whether it will be self dispatch or whether trains will be dispatched? Cambridge North was cd/ra when built however the majority of trains there now have cameras for self dispatch

 

[mr_moo]

So good they named it twice.

Lol - That's a great sign!
Well, it's such a good station it deserves it!

Anyone know whether it will be self dispatch or whether trains will be dispatched? Cambridge North was cd/ra when built however the majority of trains there now have cameras for self dispatch

There are no despatch staff - it's all DOO. There are no CD/RA facilities. All trains that will call there have on-board cameras etc so there is also no mirrors or DOO cameras etc on the station as they were not needed.



So, Opening news for you: Whilst the station is still scheduled to open to passengers on Sunday as planned, the official opening ceremony has been postponed in light of the Bedford train crash. It was not deemed appropriate by the senior team to hold the ceremony at this time, so will be re-scheduled to some later date.
It's notable that several of the injured people from the crash are in the adjacent Addenbrooke's hospital.

 

[Magdalia]

The BBC website has an item on the new station here:

Everything you need to know about Cambridge South station

The station south of Cambridge will open to the public on Sunday.

www.bbc.co.uk

Passengers will be able to travel to and from a new multimillion-pound railway station this weekend.

Cambridge South opens to the public on Sunday and is expected to welcome 1.8m passengers annually.

Here is everything you need to know about the station.

 

[RUK]

I like that Network SouthEast Addenbrooke’s station sign mock-up from the early 1990s! Outside Cambridge station - I only moved to Cambridge in 2008, so I don’t know that low-rise building or the clock diagonally opposite the station in that photo - I only remember it being a building site. Interesting to see that Number 3 bus in the background, too, specifically route-branded with the Rail Station and City Centre on it.

 

[Magdalia]

I only moved to Cambridge in 2008, so I don’t know that low-rise building or the clock diagonally opposite the station in that photo

Whereas I remember that building being constructed, It is on the site of the old Station Hotel.

Mick Station Hotel 02

Explore Newson, Dash, Sell and Jenkins' 2849 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

 

[neill]

I don’t know that low-rise building or the clock diagonally opposite the station in that photo - I only remember it being a building site.

I think it was demolished some time around 2018.

I had a quick look at the new station site today and took a few pictures from new angles. Lots of activity, but opening preparations rather than construction. The fences have been moved back much closer to the station, the coffee stall , accessibility ramps and bin liners are all present.

One more sleep!

 

[Crithylum]

Will the first train be GBR branded?

 

[Bodiam]

I like that Network SouthEast Addenbrooke’s station sign mock-up from the early 1990s! Outside Cambridge station - I only moved to Cambridge in 2008, so I don’t know that low-rise building or the clock diagonally opposite the station in that photo - I only remember it being a building site. Interesting to see that Number 3 bus in the background, too, specifically route-branded with the Rail Station and City Centre on it.

I'm sure the late Colin Rosenstiel, a long-serving Liberal/Lib Dem councillor in Cambridge and a great railway enthusiast would have been pleased to see this development.
Incidentally, some of us can remember when the bus to the city centre waiting outside the station was an Eastern Counties half-cab Bristol... Route 101 I seem to recall.

 

[rmHawk765]

Will the first train be GBR branded?

I read somewhere there is a GBR branded 387 720 being kept somewhere (Ilford I think?) for the opening.

 

[WeGoAgain]

Will the first train be GBR branded?

Nope. No GN Trains are GBR livered afaik. Nor any of the other operators' (in the region) stock.

Inaugural Service is the 0635 departure.

 

[RUK]

The very first train of the day won’t be GBR-branded, but GBR Anglia have apparently wrapped 720 501 and 720 144, the first and the last of Greater Anglia’s Class 720s, at Ilford, ready for the now-postponed press launch: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...first-train-in-new-livery.302338/post-7840424

 

[H&I]

I’ve already arrived at the station, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone here yet.

 

[dk1]

I’ve already arrived at the station, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone here yet.

What were you doing there at 4am?

 

[saismee]

What were you doing there at 4am?

On a Sunday too!!

 

[Royston Vasey]

I’ve already arrived at the station, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone here yet.

Passenger number 1! Congrats!

 

[dk1]

On a Sunday too!!

Crazy. I’d still be in a late bar then.

 

[H&I]

What were you doing there at 4am?

I was there to be the first passenger at the station! Going to station openings is something I’ve started doing since the Elizabeth line inauguration, and with the exceptions of Inverness Airport, Newsham and Beaulieu Park, I have managed to go to every new station opening in the UK since then.

Whilst I am sure that I was the first passenger to have arrived at the station, having spoken to security, I am not sure if I am the first paying passenger to have bought a ticket at the station, since the TVMs are outside the shutters. The ticket numbers are no indicator since they are pretty much never at one due to staff buying tickets as tests beforehand.

What I am sure of is that I was the first passenger to set foot in the station when the shutters opened, the first to pass through the gateline, and the first to set foot on platforms one, two and three.